Anna Page
Jennifer Boggs
Social Studies Content Area Text Assessment
January 27,2000

 Living in Our World. 1997. Dr. Richard G. Boehm, et al.  Harcourt Brace & Company, New York.

Communities Around Us. 1997. Juan R. Garcia, et al. Silver Burdette, Parsippany, New Jersey.

     The two third grade social studies textbooks we evaluated, Living in Our World and Communities Around Us, are both compatible with the North Carolina Standard Course of Study.  The books are designed to increase children’s understandings about community life in a variety of ways. The chapters compare familiar communities with those of other cultures and times, bridging our world together.  Students learn about the value of being a part of a community, locally and globally.
     The overall structures of the books are similar because each is one is broken into different themes, including what a community is, the kind of people that make up a community, and how communities grow and change.  Communities Around Us goes into a historical perspective on communities of yesterday and today.  More specifically, it engages children in lessons on Native Americans, Pilgrims, and Pioneers.  The author of Living in our World  chooses not to emphasize the history aspect of community.  Both textbooks include projects that incorporate map skills. Inclusive in the texts are graphs, tables and diagrams.  Overall, each book allows the students to understand, explore, and try the concepts.
     Although both books are compatible to the North Carolina Standard Course of Study, they are both unique in their approaches.  Communities Around Us  has a more in-depth study of each chapter.   Comprehension and critical thinking questions are included throughout each lesson.   Living in Our World does not include many extra learning activities.  However, it does have some activities that appeal to students with different learning styles.  For example, it allows visual learners to view and interpret maps.  The summaries of the two books are where the main differences can be found.  Communities Around Us  does a wonderful job summarizing each chapter.  The summaries include seven different areas which allow for comprehension, skill power, critical thinking, vocabulary review, map studies, creativity, and the ability to use the information in their own communities.  Living in Our Community only includes a few questions that help the students recall the facts and focus on the main idea.  One activity to associate the subject to everyday life is also included. Communities Around Us includes an excellent bibliography at the end of each chapter.  It recommends books for students and teachers, and technology resources such as software, videos, and web sites.  We feel that Communities Around Us does a better job at summarizing and reviewing the material covered in each chapter.
     However, both textbooks display wonderful integration techniques.  Each chapter includes stories that relate to the material and ideas on how to include other literature into the topics.   Ideas for subject integration are also included throughout the text.  Art is used through having students draw maps and pictures of their own communities.  Music is also included to enhance each chapter. The books do a great job in showing the diversity of each community.  A wide range of culture and race are displayed through the various pictures and literature throughout the entire text.
     After comparing the two books, we have concluded that Communities Around Us is quite well rounded, allowing for better learning.   It is more user friendly for beginning teachers because of the various additional ideas it includes.